The Life of the Ancient Maya’s The Maya’s were an ancient civilization that faced many difficult tasks in their everyday lives that needed to be completed in order for survival. The Mayan tribes existed from about 400 BC until around 1524 when they were taken over by the Spanish conquistadors (Sharer p.3). They occupied three separate areas of land.The Southern area covers present day Guatemala. The central area stretched from what is now Tabasco to northern Guatemala. Finally the central region makes up a lot of the southern portion of Mexico (Coe p.31). The Maya’s believed that the universe was not the first, but the 7th. Floods destroyed all the other worlds. This one began on 4 Ahaw 8 Kumk’u 13.0.0.0.0 or August 13, 3,114. They predicted that the great flood would come on December 23rd, 2012 (Coe p.201)The roles in the families were pretty simple. Son’s were expected to follow in their father’s footsteps, but did not have to. The only exception was priests. If your father was a priest you had to be a priest. Girls were taught and educated by their mothers. They were all raised to take care of the house and the children (Coe p.209). The men and boys lived in one house while girls and women lived in another. Boys were taught the arts of war and learned about jobs while the women taught the girls to sew and cook (Coe p.195).The weather was humid and dry. The men usually wore a cloth around their waist. More elite men dressed in robes tying from their shoulders down to their kneecaps (Laughton p.37). These robes also contained elaborate designs. The women dressed in dresses that wrapped around their shoulders almost like a toga (Sharer p.103). Until women were married they continued to live with their parents. They were not permitted to talk to men unless men spoke to them first. Also if a man was walking down the road the women had to step aside out of his way and turn their...
